1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a deadlock avoidance method and a treatment system for an object to be treated.
2. Related Background Art
In recent years, various domestic electric appliances, such as televisions and stereos, and various electric appliances, such as information apparatuses including personal computers, are produced, and these electric appliances are in multi-product small-scale production ages. Consequently, various semiconductor products, such as high and low function products, are used for the electric appliances.
Production processes for semiconductor products include various processes, such as treatment, inspection and assembly processes for, e.g., semiconductor wafers (which will be hereinafter simply referred to as xe2x80x9cwafersxe2x80x9d). For example, there are various treatment processes, such as a thin film deposition process for depositing thin films including a conductive film and an insulator film on a wafer surface, an etching process for forming a predetermined shape of opening in the respective films, and an embedding process for the opening. For these processes, e.g., a multi-chamber treatment system (which will be hereinafter simply referred to as a xe2x80x9ctreatment systemxe2x80x9d) is widely used. This treatment system has a plurality of treatment chambers for carrying out different treatments so that a plurality of treatments, such as thin film deposition treatments and etching treatments, can be sequentially carried out by means of a single system.
However, semiconductor products have been miniaturized decreasingly to greatly enhance the degree of integration thereof to scale down and multilayer the wiring structure to increase the number of treatment processes for wafers. For that reason, it is very important how to increase the throughput for the processes. At this point, the above described treatment system can achieve a plurality of treatments with a high throughput by a single system to be used for general purpose. In addition, as the number of treatments increases, the number of treatment chambers of the treatment system increases as many as possible. However, there are various semiconductor products, for which a large number of treatments and a small number of treatments are carried. Therefore, in accordance with the kind of the semiconductor products, there are some cases where all the treatment chambers are used or a part of the treatment chambers are not used. There are also same cases where the same treatment chamber is doubly used.
However, in the case of conventional treatment systems, since wafers are sequentially treated every one kind of wafers in accordance with the kind of the wafers, the treatment chamber may have play for some kinds of wafers, so that the treatment chambers can not often be efficiently used as a whole. In addition, as various semiconductor products are produced in recent years, the treatment chamber has often play if wafers are sequentially treated for every kind of the wafers, so that there are problems in that the efficiency of use of the treatment chambers as a whole decreases to cause the throughput to remarkably decrease.
On the other hand, when a plural kinds of objects, to which different treatments are to be carried out, are treated in parallel in order to enhance the efficiency of use of the treatment chambers as a whole, it is likely that a deadlock may occur in a common treatment chamber wherein different kinds of objects to be treated are located on the respective transport routes, so that a plural kinds of objects, to which different treatments are to be carried out, can not be treated in parallel without establishing any fundamental rules.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to eliminate the aforementioned problems and to provide a deadlock avoidance method and a treatment system for objects to be treated, which can treat a plural kinds of objects, to which different treatments are to be carried out, in parallel to the utmost and which can use a plurality of treatment chambers to the maximum to enhance throughput so as to be suitable for multi-product small-scale production.
In order to accomplish the aforementioned and other objects, according to the present invention, when a plural kinds of objects, to which different treatments are to be carried out, are treated in parallel, it is possible to simply determine whether a deadlock is caused by the relationship between the plural kinds of objects to be treated.
When it is determined that no deadlock is caused by the relationship between the plural kinds of objects to be treated, it is possible to treat the plural kinds of objects in parallel, and it is not required to sequentially treat the plural kinds of objects one kind at a time every one kind thereof, so that it is possible to efficiently use the treatment chambers as a whole.
When it is determined that a deadlock is caused by the relationship between the plural kinds of objects to be treated, it is not possible to treat the plural kinds of objects in parallel, so that the objects are sequentially treated one kind at a time every one kind thereof.
However, even if it is determined that a deadlock is caused by the plural kinds of objects, to which different treatments are to be carried out, a part of the objects are treated in parallel as follows. That is, on the basis of the determined results that the deadlock is caused by the relationship between the plural kinds of objects, to which different treatments are to be carried out, the objects are sequentially treated one kind at a time every one kind thereof. In this case,there are some cases where the deadlock is not caused by the relationship between the final object of a group of objects, which has been treated in former sequence, and the first object of a group of objects, which is treated in latter sequence, the final object of the group of objects, which has been treated in former sequence, and the first object of the group of objects, which is treated in latter sequence, are treated in parallel to improve the treatment speed.
According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for avoiding causing a deadlock in a common treatment chamber, which is one of a plurality treatment chambers of a treatment system for transporting a plural kinds of objects along a plurality of transport routes to carry out different treatments for the objects and which is common to different transport routes of the plurality of transport routes for transporting different kinds of objects of the plural kinds of objects, when the plural kinds of objects are transported along the different transport routes to carry out predetermined treatments for the objects in the plurality of treatment chambers on the different transport routes, the method comprising the steps of: setting the plural kinds of transport routes in the treatment chamber; determining whether each of the plurality of treatment chambers located on the set transport routes is located upstream or downstream of other treatment chambers of the plurality of treatment chambers on the whole transport route including the different transport routes; preparing an upstream/downstream table indicative of an upstream/downstream relationship of each of the plurality of treatment chambers with other treatment chambers of the plurality of treatment chambers, on the basis of the determined results whether each of the plurality of treatment chambers is located upstream or downstream of the other treatment chambers; and determining that the objects cause a deadlock, when the common treatment chamber corresponds to both of upstream and downstream positions while the upstream/downstream table is prepared.
In this deadlock avoidance method, when it is determined by the upstream/downstream table that the objects cause no deadlock in the common treatment chamber, the different kinds of objects may be transported along the corresponding transport routes to be treated in parallel.
When it is determined by the upstream/downstream table that the objects cause a deadlock in the common treatment chamber, one of the different kinds of objects, which causes the deadlock, may be transported to be treated, and the other object of the different kinds of objects may be transported to be treated in parallel to the one of the objects when deadlock does not yet occur.
The upstream/downstream table may be updated in accordance with the progress status of the objects.
The upstream/downstream table may be formed by arranging the set treatment chambers in a matrix form of rows and columns, determining whether a treatment chamber arranged in a predetermined column is located upstream or downstream of a treatment chamber arranged in a predetermined row or determining whether a treatment chamber arranged in a predetermined row is located upstream or downstream of a treatment chamber arranged in a predetermined column, and indicating the determined result in the predetermined row and the predetermined column.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a treatment system which has a plurality of treatment chambers and which is capable of avoiding causing a deadlock in a common treatment chamber wherein different kinds of objects to be treated are located on transport routes therefor, the treatment system comprising: transport means for transporting a plural kinds of objects to be treated, which are supported on a supporting member, one by one; a plurality of treatment chambers for sequentially carrying out a predetermined treatment for the objects transported by the transport means; and control means for controlling the transport means and the plurality of treatment chambers, the control means comprising: program storage means for storing a deadlock avoidance program; table preparing means for determining whether each of the treatment chambers located on the set transport routes is located upstream or downstream of other treatment chambers on the whole transport route including the different transport routes, in accordance with the deadlock avoidance program, to prepare an upstream/downstream indicative of an upstream/downstream relationship of each of the treatment chambers with other treatment chambers on the basis of the determined result; deadlock determining means for determining that the objects cause a deadlock, when it is determined that the common treatment chamber corresponds to both of upstream and downstream positions while the upstream/downstream table is prepared by the table preparing means; and deadlock determining means for determining that a deadlock is caused, when the common treatment chamber corresponds to both of upstream and downstream positions while the upstream/downstream table is prepared by the table preparing means, thereby avoiding causing a deadlock in the common treatment chamber wherein different kinds of objects to be treated are located on the transport routes, when the plural kinds of objects, to which different treatments are carried out, are transported along different transport routes to carry out predetermined treatments for the objects in the plurality of treatment chambers located on the transport routes.
The control means may have table updating means for sequentially updating the upstream/downstream table.